Protea obtusifolia

H. Buek ex Meisn.

Limestone protea

ProteaceaeFlowers

iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) suewhitelaw, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by suewhitelaw

iNaturalist · cc-by
(c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Flowers - nectar

The nectar from the flowers is sucked or shaken fresh from the flower heads.

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant.

Africa, South Africa*, Southern Africa,

Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A large upright shrub. It grows 2-4 m tall. It can spread 5 m wide. The main trunk is 60 cm wide. The leaves curve upwards. They are broadly sword shaped and 10-15 cm long by 2-4 cm wide. They are broadest above the middle. They are dark green. The flower heads are red. These are 9-12 cm long by 5-8 cm wide.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Protea obtusifolia is a species of Protea. It is native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.

Names & Synonyms

Suikerkanne

References (3)

De Vynk, J. C., et al, 2016, Indigenous edible plant use by contemporary Khoe-San descendants of South Africa's Cape South Coast. South African Journal of Botany. 102 (2016) 60-69
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 93
Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179

What to Eat

Where to Find It

How to Identify

Wikipedia

More from Proteaceae